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Thread: Which 7850 / 7870?

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    Which 7850 / 7870?

    Hi, sometime ago I asked for advice on which graphics card to buy having not owned one since buying an xbox almost a decade ago. I basically want to play all games, and things crysis 3 for example will be on the list.

    The end use will be in an HTPC, connected to a HDTV so the maximum resolution required will be 1080p. The card will also be used for hardware decoding of video and hardware deinterlacing of HD TV streams etc.
    One other thing I would like to consider is 3D playback, things like BluRays etc for if I ever buy myself a 3D capable TV. Does this require features on a card or is it just normal stuff? 3D gaming, I'm not particulary bothered about.

    When looking on Scan and Aria etc I see loads of these cards, all marked as 7850/7870 etc, but they have various speeds atatched to the GPUs and the memory and I don't know if some of this is gimmick or not so I would like to shortlist a few models which I should spend the cash on. Ideally max £190.

    One other thing that does concern me slightly is the volume of these cards. The last card I owned was a Radeon 9800 Pro like 10 years ago lol. So I have absolutely nothing to compare against. I need to make sure it's not too noisey (especially when being used to playback video) and I'm curious just how noisey these things are going to be.. and more so, what options are there for making them more quiet if any?

    Any help would be much appreciated before I drop the cash on the wrong thing!

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    If you can afford it, go with the 7870 ghz ed. But personally I would go for Sapphire, Asus or Msi. There are a few cheaper brands at the moment like the Club which although have been selling around the £140 mark people are reporting them to be noisy and not cooling very well. I have the sapphire 7850 @ 1025 / 1250 oc and its very rare for it to go above 60 deg and is still quiet.

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    What case,PSU and CPU do you have??

    This HD7850 has a very quiet cooler:

    http://www.ebuyer.com/394762-powerco...50-2gbd5-2dhpp

    It is also running at the same clockspeeds as an HD7870 and is not much slower. It is probably one of the best HD7850 cards if not the best one.

    This HD7870 also has a quiet cooler:

    http://www.ebuyer.com/388867-powerco...0-2gbd5-2dhppv

    It also has a large 15% pre-overclock too,and is around stock GTX660TI or HD7950 as a result. It is probably one of the best HD7870 cards ATM.

    There is also this GTX660 which AFAIK is reasonably quiet too:

    http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyt...30000-14&src=3

    Edit!!

    Here is a review of the HD7850:

    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/P...S_Plus/27.html

    Here is a review of the HD7870:

    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/P...rtex_II/1.html

    Here is a review of the GTX660:

    http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/geforc...w-32523-3.html

    It is a good card too.
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 10-02-2013 at 04:38 PM.

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    i have that pcs+ hd 7870 - and whilst its not an `LE` its damn quick - 1150/1250 clocks and mine is getting 5245 at those clocks in 3dmark

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    Hi, thanks for the replies.

    Regarding the case, CPU etc..

    AMD FX6100 3.3Ghz 6 Core
    Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 Mobo
    16GB Ram (but 6GB is utilized in a ram disk so 10GB free)
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    Case is a Silverstone Lascala LC16B-M

    Just measured the max length of the card before it hits the DVD caddy and its 225mm.. That alone looks like its going to be a complete show stopper unless I was to remove the DVD drive
    Also I have a TV card in the slot two below the PCIE16 slot so the card can not be bigger than two slots.

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    I'm not sure what type of loads 3D playback will have on the GPUs, but most graphics cards nowadays are relatively quiet on normal 1080p video playback as they don't generally have to run at their full speeds.

    I've used two different brands of 7850, a Sapphire Dual-X edition with dual fans and a MSI 7850 1GB OC with a single fan. Whilst both were quiet at idle, the Sapphire one spun up on load, allowing you to hear it quite easily (well I tested it in a case with 2x 120mm fans on 800 or so RPM with a fanless heatsink and with the only over fan being the PSU fan which are generally quiet). The MSI one does not spin any faster from what I see and it runs at a constant speed so it doesn't ever get loud. The funny thing is that the MSI one actually keeps the temperature roughly the same as the Sapphire one, even though the Sapphire one has two fans spinning faster.

    Also the MSI one is only £120 from Scan (well I just checked and it's actually gone up to £130 ). It is only 1GB though but I don't think it'll matter much as you're only outputting at 1080p max. I use it on 1440p and it's fine for my uses.

    The card is roughly 200-210mm long so with the PCI-E cable in, it'll fit. It might be a bit hard to fit the PCI-E cable in though.

    A quick google tells me that you need HDMI 1.4a and HD3D to do 3D playback, the only thing I'm not sure about is whether this MSI one has HDMI 1.4a as it doesn't say anything about the HDMI version on their website.

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    The Sapphire HD7850 2GB I linked to is the PCS+ one which is meant to be one of the quietest HD7850 cards:
    http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Powercolor...noise_idle.gif
    http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Powercolor...noise_load.gif
    http://img.hexus.net/v2/graphics_car...+/graph-08.png

    Edit!!

    Its 230MM long so won't fit:

    http://www.powercolor.com/Global/pro...#Specification

    The quieter cards tend to be a bit larger,and the smaller ones have smaller heatsinks meaning the fans tend to have to spin faster.

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    Im running one of the new 7870 LE cards (the VTX3d) and despite some interesting negative prejudices I've read on forums the cards an absolute revelation. Clocks to 1150 core and 1600 DDR5 on the stock voltage profile, I can hear the fan playing Far Cry 3 but it's not as loud as my old 5850 and abolutely rocks. Can't recommend highly enough. Was worried I wouldn't see a big benefot from upgrading but I've been plesaantly surprised. I thought long and hard about getting a regular Pitcairn 7870, but I'm glad I chose the Tahiti LE.

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    Thinking I may need to remove the DVD caddy and buy an external bluray drive :-/

    Nothings ever simple is it.

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    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 10-02-2013 at 05:59 PM.

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    Hi.

    Just wanted to say a thanks for the advice and especially Cat-The-Fifth for all those suggestions and links, really appreciated. I think I have settled on a Zoltac 660GTX Amp Edition and set about ordering one today, but I'm struggling to find a supplier other than Scan. Don't suppose anyone else is aware of any more obscure places?

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    Dabs have both versions as ordered upon request.
    http://www.dabs.com/category/compone...83330000-50634

    Aria have the lower clocked one in stock.
    http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=53626

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    Found the non Amp knocking around the usual places, fancy the slightly quicker card though. I suppose I should give Scan a second chance, just dread to think what will happen if the card develops a fault. Can you deal with Zoltac directly for warrenty stuff?

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    The Ebuyer card has the same cooler,but is not the AMP Edition,or is a new version.

    I would probably not spend £190 on a GTX660 as that is too close to he GTX660TI and HD7950,and more expensive than the HD7870 Special Edition.

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=53626

    If I was to go for say the card above.. (normal Zotac 660GTX) do you think it would have much of an impact on the FPS compared to the AMP version, or should I look at a HD7870..?

    I like that the Zotac is small and also that it has a 5 year warrenty.

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    Re: Which 7850 / 7870?

    Quote Originally Posted by Thebatfink View Post
    http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=53626

    If I was to go for say the card above.. (normal Zotac 660GTX) do you think it would have much of an impact on the FPS compared to the AMP version, or should I look at a HD7870..?

    I like that the Zotac is small and also that it has a 5 year warrenty.
    The Zotac is small enough to fit in your case with no issues. The card mentioned in post 8 is the fastest one under £200 and Ebuyer sell it with games too and only costs £173. However,it a big card and the HD7870 will be a tight fit in your case.

    Here is a review of the card:

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rk,3297-4.html

    The AMP Edition boosts the clockspeed by around 5% and the memory speed by around 10% so I expect it is not really worth the extra IMHO.

    At around £169 it looks a good price.

    The thing is the Ebuyer card as a code of ZT-60903-10M and has no specifications on the Zotac website. The AMP edition has a code of ZT-60902-10M.

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